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User blog:Pinkguy the b0ss/Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble Review
What's up my Shreks, it's DiamondMinerStudios here, and today, I unexpectedly beat Donkey Kong Country 3. I've been wanting to review this game for months now, and I've finally beaten it. I won't waste any more time. Unfortunately, like DKC2, not much is known about this game's development cycle, except the fact that it was made using the same technology as the previous two games (a Silicon Graphics computer with the program "Alias Power Animator"). While the game was successful commercially and critically, fans of the series and all kinds of gamers alike are very divided on this game. Some people consider the game the best of the original trilogy, others argue that it's the worst in the trilogy, and others rank it in between the other two. So, what do I think? Let's find out. Story Like the first two games, this one earns no accolades for its plot. After their defeat of K. Rool in the previous game, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong decide to go to a tropical archipelago known as the "Northern Kremisphere." After several nights of not returning, Dixie Kong sets out for the place in search of her friends. While there, she teams up with her nephew Kiddy Kong and soon finds out that the Kremlings (now supposedly led by the mysterious, Max Headroom-lookalike robot KAOS) are supposedly involved with DK and Diddy's disappearance. Probably the most detailed story in a DKC game, but not terribly complicated. Again, it's an adequate story. Gameplay Just like the last two games, the game is a 2D sidescroller. This game also has Dixie's helicopter ability and the team-up move, both returning from the last game. They work just as well as last time. There are a few new things in terms of abilities as well, one of which being Kiddy's water skip move. It's really only useful in certain situations and doesn't even control very well. The other isn't a new ability more than it is a slight change to an existing one. If Dixie throws Kiddy, he'll be able to break through weak portions of ground on the dock levels. Again, it's not useful outside of what it's required for. The controls are largely the same as the last game's, if you couldn't tell just by reading the last paragraph. They feel perfectly natural and responsive, as per the usual. Just like the last game, you stand in place when throwing anything, making precision throws easier. I think the only true "downgrade" in the controls is the somersault move. It works just fine, but the level design doesn't make it really useful like in the last two games. That's not to say that it was never useful, just not as useful as it was in the previous two games. Most of the animal buddies from the previous game return, such as Squawks, Squitter, and Enguarde. They all control just as well as before, but aren't as well utilized as the last game. There are some good animal buddy levels, like Krack Shot Kroc, but with each seemingly comes something like Floodlit Fish, which is dull and uninteresting. Overall, the animal buddies are still a good adition to DKC3's gameplay, but are nowhere near as fun as they were in the last game. ..... Yeah... I know. I'm avoiding it. Ok, now to address the elephant in the room (literally). They took out what was arguably the best animal buddy from the first two games - Rambi the Rhinoceros. In his place is Ellie the Elephant. What made Rambi so much fun was how powerful he was. He was practically indestructible from the front and (in the second game) had a charge move that led to some high-octane fun due to how fast he moved and how quickly he killed off a ton of enemies. Ellie, on the other hand, is kind of boring. Don't get me wrong, Ellie is a good animal buddy and can be quite useful, however. If she's lousy, then she is only so in comparison to Rambi, and even then, not that lousy. A slightly larger issue is the slower pace of the levels. They usually involve waiting for platforms, puzzle-solving elements with endlessly respawning barrels, and a small amount of backtracking. This is a bit disappointing in comparison to the previous two games, which were faster-paced and a lot more engaging. This doesn't ruin the game, but because of this slow pace, I find this game pretty boring. The thing that really sets the game apart from its predecessors is its world map. Instead of a linear world map, there's an open-ended one where you drive a boat around the Kremisphere. It spans seven worlds - Lake Orangatanga, Kremwood Forest, Cotton-Top Cove, Mekanos, K3, Razor Ridge, and Kaos Kore. You aren't completely allowed to do every world in whatever order you want, but you can do Mekanos before Cotton-Top Cove, which I guess is kind of cool. The true advantage of this map style is the ability to save whenever you want. Since the game allows you to exit a world just by leaving it the way you entered, and that a save point is accessible on the starting island, you can go back and save at any time. You can still save at the points inside each world, which is a bit more convenient, but you still have the option. With that being said, let's discuss the game's difficulty. Difficulty Holy shit. I know I said that DKC2 was the hardest game in the trilogy before, but after playing this game? I think I'm gonna retract my statement. This game is easily the hardest game in the trilogy. Of course, this isn't neccessarily a bad thing. I happen to love some pretty hard games, like Super Mario Bros. 3, and appreciate when dvelopers can provide a decent challenge. What matters, though, is whether or not this challenge comes from the proper source - through the mastery of simple-to-learn mechanics through engagement with the game's level design. Unfortunately... this is where DKC3 begins to falter. The sad part is that this game actually starts out pretty promising. For the first three worlds or so, this game is pretty damn enjoyable and is on par with the first two games, although there's a level I don't like every now and then. Once you get past Cotton Top Cove and reach the game's fourth world Mekanos, though... it drops off sharply in quality. Easily the biggest flaw with this game is the camera and enemy placement. During the first three worlds, they're mostly good. However, once you get past the third world, both begin to get in the way all of the damn time. More often than not, you'll be playing through the levels and then get blindsided by an enemy you couldn't even see. This happens way too often for my tastes. One level in Razor Ridge (the game's sixth world) has to be the worst case of this - Kong-Fused Cliffs. It's a level centered on rope climbing, which itself doesn't sound that bad. I mean, Chain Link Chamber was one of the best levels in DKC2 because of its creative use of this setpiece. Then you play the level, and see that there's one rope that constantly burns, meaning you have to constantly climb up. Sounds fine, right? Until you notice the ''TERRIBLE ''enemy placement and extremely limited vertical visibility, which means that enemies will constantly ambush you from above. Oh, and I'm not done yet. The camera and enemy placements are pretty bad on their own, but adding further on to this is the level design itself. The past two games' levels were all centered on various setpieces, 98% of which I found to be good. In this game, though, so many levels are bogged down by stupid gimmicks that do nothing but get in the way. The sad thing is, most of these would be fine if the camera was better done. But, as it is, the majority of them fall flat because of it. And then there are those gimmicks that are completely unsalvageable irrespective of the camera design. The three worst examples I point to are Fish Food Frenzy, Lightning Lookout, and Koindozer Klamber. The first features a fish that constantly swims behind you. In order to stay alive, you have to feed this little fucker with fish every ten seconds. The problem with this: if he eats a lurchin (a spiky urchin-like enemy), he gets angrier and closer to taking a bite out of you. And of course, these dickish designers put lurchins EVERYWHERE, which is very annoying to deal with. This stage also goes on for way too long for my tastes. It's tedium incarnate. The second is where shit really hits the fan. Lightning Lookout is one of my least favorite levels in the whole Donkey Kong series. It's one of those annoying riverbank levels, most of which I'm not a fan of, so this already doesn't bode well. Then you play it, and get killed over and over again by this level's cheap gimmick - the constant lightning blasts from above, coming seemingly at random. This was easily one of the most obnoxious levels in the game, and I never have a good time with it. However, this isn't the worst level in the game. No, not in a million years. The worst stage in this game, no, the series, and the holy grail of frustration: Koindozer Klamber. Christ, how did they do it so badly? It starts up, and it doesn't seem so bad. You walk to the right, and... BOOM! Out of nowhere, this pink cocksucker known as the Koindozer rams into you, and you get pushed all the way back to the left wall. You try to escape it, but find that it's nearly impossible to do this. Once you manage to, you go to the right, only to get knocked into a pit from the Koindozer. This was my first experience with this level, and the first thought on my mind was "What the fuck." This was only the beginning to one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had with a single level in a game. Over the next six months or so, whenever I put this game into my SNES to play it, I would constantly get game overs due to the terrible enemy placement, awful visibility, and overuse of bottomless pits. After six months of tearing off my pubes with duct tape, I finally overcame this terrible level. When I did, I wasn't satisfied. I was just relieved that it was over, and that I can move on and finally finsh this god damned game. Thankfully, the level after this one, Poisonous Pipeline, was actually fairly enjoyable. Even though it flips your left and right controls, it was surprisingly well-executed and one of the least frustrating stages in the game. Contrary to all of this crap, the bosses are overall pretty good. The first boss is a bit too easy, but the rest are decently challenging, with Arich, Squirt, and Bleak being highlights. They're all pretty creative and have some interesting playstyles. The final boss is also good, although not as good as DKC2's final boss. The only bad boss is Barbos, the second-to-last boss. It goes on for way too long, and the strategies you have to use to defeat him are complete bullshit. Overall, though, this game has some pretty solid bosses. Soundtrack DKC3 definitely has a decent soundtrack, but it's not as memorable as the soundtracks from the last two games. DKC3's soundtrack more closely resembles tracks such as DKC1's Voices of the Temple or Misty Menace. It's generally full of overpowering ambience and bass, which leads to a more depressing, moody tone that doesn't fit the DKC universe too well. Unfortunately, this only exemplifies how boring I find this game. It certainly has some great tracks, such as the Brothers Bear, Nuts and Bolts, and Boss Boogie, and Cascade Capers, but most of it is forgettable. But, like I said, forgettable does not neccessarily equal bad, and this is one of those cases. Graphics The graphics in this game are absolutely stunning, just like the previous games. While they may be the most detailed in the trilogy, I still think DKC1 and DKC2 look better because their art direction is far superior and both are more colorful. The game is also somewhat lacking in terms of charm and personality. The enemies are fairly faceless this time around, and even the Kongs themselves don't have much personality beyond the idle animations, switching, and when Kiddy wins at a bonus game. That's not to say that the game isn't completely lacking in charm, as K. Rool is pretty goofy, as he was in the last two games. All I'm saying is that the game isn't as memorable as the second one, or even the first one for that matter. This, once again, makes this game feel pretty boring in comparison to most other sidescrollers I've played. Conclusion Ok, if I'm being honest... I don't like this game very much. It is, in my opinion, the weakest of the original SNES trilogy by far. This game is infested with bad levels, awful enemy placement, and a camera that actively works against you. However, my biggest issue with this game is how boring I find it to revisit. This game does absolutely nothing for me that countless other games provide, and then some. In fact, it's one of those rare cases where the game gets slightly worse every time I revisit it. This isn't an outright terrible game, it's just not a game I'll be revisiting very much at all. The frustration I went through on my first playthrough won't slip my mind anytime soon either. I will say this, though: don't let my bad personal experiences with this game deter you from playing it. If you like the first two games, you'll get something out of this game. And hey, maybe you'll like it more than I did. Yeah, that's about it. Next time, I'll be trying out New Super Mario Bros. Wii. After playing through seven Mario games and the entire DKC trilogy in a single year, I'm suprisingly not that tired or burned out, but I might take a break for a bit. I'm probably gonna do two playthroughs of NSMBW, one using shortcuts, and the other playing through every world (just to see which I prefer). I haven't played the game for years, and I remember it being somewhat frustrating, maybe because I was playing on a flatscreen (which has input lag, by the way), and in the 2-player mode. I also sucked hard at platforming games back then, so that may have been a factor. Overall though, I have fond memories of that game, so it would be interesting for me to see how well it holds up almost a decade later. Now, with my Wii hooked up to a nice CRT TV and having gotten used to the Wiimote again due to playing through the excellent Super Mario Galaxy dualogy recently, I can finally put NSMBW to rest. With that ridiculously long conclusion out of the way, thank you for reading, my Shreks, and see you in the next post, which probably won't be a game review since NSMBW will probably take me a while to beat. In any event, see you guys later. Category:Blog posts